Lunch in the Clouds

Yesterday, on a beautiful, clear, sunny summer day, we decided to travel a short distance on the Blue Ridge Parkway to enjoy lunch at the Pisgah Inn.  The Pisgah Inn consists of a modest cluster of buildings, including a convenience store, a motel, and a restaurant with two full glass walls overlooking some magnificent views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  For a "tourist trap," we always have felt that the food is quite good and reasonably priced and the atmosphere is spectacular.  We generally try to find our way to this treasure a couple times each spring to fall season.

In spite of the title of this post, I am not going to bore you with photos of what we ate for lunch... there are much more interesting things to show you!

Driving up, through the tunnels and past the observation points, I anticipated the berries on the Mountain Ash trees.

I was not disappointed!  The Mountain Ash has always held a special memory for me.  They grew well in the region of Minnesota where my dad grew up and I recall his bringing a sapling home to Buffalo in a coffee can on one of our yearly car trips to see the Minnesota grandparents.  That tree grew to maturity with me in the yard of the house that I considered "home" during my teens and early twenties.  The colorful berries were always a gentle reminder that fall was on it's way.

Russ insisted on taking my picture in front of a Mountain Ash.

Just to keep things even, here's a picture of Russ with the mountains to his back.

It seems no matter how clear it is at our elevation at home, there are clouds this high up... where did that dark cloud at the top of the photo come from?  (I remember one of our last visits where the dining room was enveloped in a cloud and it was only as we were finishing our meal that we could start to see a slight clearing.)

It occurred to me that as many times as we have been here, I never took a picture of the summit of Mt. Pisgah.  The transmission tower at its peak is visible from many spots around Asheville.

Usually we are drawn to the panoramic views of the layered mountains in the other direction.  Even with that dark cloud, it is impressive, and the sun streaming through the clouds creates some islands of brighter color on the canopy of trees below.

I enjoyed seeing some of the summer wildflowers and so I will share some pictures of those with you.

 We made a note to identify this pretty fuchsia bell shaped flower... haven't done that yet.  Perhaps you know it's name?

 And all along the parkway were clusters of what looked like brown-eyed susans.  I'm not sure if this is the exact flower, but you will notice that there are bees in the center of two of these blooms.

 These berries were a distance away and a little difficult to capture.

One more view before we leave.

A bit hazy, but I never tire of seeing those layers of mountains reaching toward the horizon.

We only made one stop at an observation point on our way back down the parkway.  But I was happy to capture the Joe Pye weed in the foreground.

As I paused for my photos, I did my best to capture this butterfly alighting on a flower.  I was a distance away and only had my trusty iPhone, but I think you can see that flash of yellow and black.

While at the Inn we struck up a conversation with a couple who were there for a two night stay.  They were a bit older than us and surprisingly lived in South Asheville also.  It had been their custom to spend a couple days each summer at the Inn to enjoy the solitude, the scenery, and each other.  The gentleman, who was in his 80's said that he traveled all over the United States and the world with his job and when it came time to retire, he chose this area... said he never found anyplace better. 

I'd have to agree!

A New Old Rocking Chair

Over the past several months we have been replacing some of our living room furniture.  As we envisioned what we needed to keep and what to replace, we decided that we should try to find something to replace our rocking chair.

This chair has been with us for over 40 years.  We bought it at an auction and it was in pretty nasty shape.  We refinished it and it has been in our various houses ever since.  Before we moved to NC 10 years ago, a friend replaced the seat with caning.  Though it fit nicely in the corner of our living room, it really didn't provide very comfortable seating for guests, and we knew it would be happier in a bedroom.  So we began to look for a replacement... hopefully we would find a smallish rocking chair that would provide the occasional seating and compliment the rather eclectic furnishings we have in that room.

So in early May, I saw this Eastlake style platform rocker in a vintage/antique store and it appealed to me.  My original thought was that the upholstery was rather simple and that I could tackle reupholstering it myself.

 As you can see, the back and the seat are rather caved in and the ugly upholstery fabric doesn't even have the vertical patterns matched up.  But the wood was in pretty good shape and it had some nice carved details, yet it was of small enough scale to fit in the corner by our TV, and the warm oak wood would fit in with the other oak pieces in the living room.

 I immediately removed the tacks and peeled back some of the upholstery and could tell that even though it would be easy for me to replace the fabric, the deteriorated under support and padding needed a more professional touch.

Eastlake platform rockers get their name from Charles Locke Eastlake (1846-1906) who wasn't a manufacturer, but rather a dictator of style.  He apparently reeled from the ornate over-the-top Victorian styles and popularized a simplified style that eventually evolved into the English and then American craftsman styles.  So these types of chairs, which are supposedly quite common, are bridges between the 19th C Victorian "gingerbready" pieces and the early 20th C simpler craftsman styles.  Earlier pieces were walnut, but the fact that this chair is oak probably dates it to 1895 or slightly later.  The rocker operates on two large springs.  When I washed the piece, I could not find any indiction of a manufacturer.  It is surprisingly comfortable.

So here is the refurbished chair in place in the corner of the living room!

I chose a rather contemporary fabric to show off the rich brown wood.

 Here is a close up of the chair back so that you can see the carved details that appealed to me, and below, I am tilting the chair forward so that you can see the upholstery on the back.

I'm pleased with my new old rocking chair!

The upholstery and some restoration of the wood was done by Adam Justen.  We dropped off the chair on a Monday and we had it back by Wednesday!  I think he did an excellent job and his price was very reasonable.
Justen Upholstery
Adam Justen
828-242-4648
justenupholstery@gmail.com
Asheville, NC

Just a quick trip to Indianapolis!

Last weekend we went to Indianapolis for a wedding.  Perhaps it was a little crazy to drive the 488 miles to Indianapolis on Friday, go to the wedding on Saturday and then drive home on Sunday, but it was an opportunity to see some friends and to celebrate a happy occasion... so off we went!

We stayed in Carmel, a very prosperous looking town located about 10 miles due north of downtown Indianapolis.  Carmel has a very artsy, upscale Main Street with plenty of restaurants, public art, cute shops, and it is pedestrian and bicycle friendly.  We didn't take a lot of photos, but I did enjoy this pint of pear cider with dinner and visited with this rather statuesque woman on the street.

She was certainly overdressed for the warm summer evening!

We had just a few hours for sight-seeing on Saturday, so decided to head to downtown Indianapolis.  Our route took us south on North Meridian Street, which is a major N-S intersection of the city.  We were impressed by the beautiful homes and mansions that lined the whole stretch of this road.  Indianapolis certainly looks prosperous and if they had any urban blight, they have done a good job of removing it!  

Our first stop was the historic City Market, but that was kind of a disappointment.  It was in a pretty historic building on Market Street, but half the vendors were absent, and it was really just a food court.  We had hoped for fresh produce vendors, crafters, and more activity.  Russ was able to buy a scone.

Just a couple blocks west on Market Street is the literal center of town, a huge circle surrounding an enormous monument, landscaped with beautiful flower plantings, cascading water pools, secondary monuments, ornate light fixtures... a really remarkable spot!  And surrounding the circle were cafes and hotels and upscale restaurants and plenty of pedestrians, as well as motor cyclists who were collecting there for an afternoon rally.  They have a Chocolate Cafe, reminiscent of our Asheville Chocolate Lounge and there were also a couple of pub cycles circulating through the downtown streets, something we also see in Asheville.  

So, the monument:

The structure dates back to just after the Civil War and recognizes Indiana's contributions to all the historic events prior to that.  It really is a wonderful public space with lots of plaques and details to explore.  

But the main attraction was that you could go to the top of the monument to get a 360 degree view of the area.  Russ walked up the many stairs, but I opted for the elevator.  Even using the elevator there were about three flights of narrow, curving stairs that you still needed to go up and down.  Some of you may know that I am rather skittish about heights and don't particularly like "no back" stairs.  We won't even mention closed in spaces.

So here are some views we enjoyed.

 This first one is facing north and the monument you see about two blocks away is the World War monument and museum.
And then this view faces west and shows the State House.  One thing that amazed us was how flat it is here.  Yes, I guess we'd miss the mountains!

 I also have this view of the State House taken from the lower terrace of the monument.

We had a little time for exploring further.  Between the monument circle and the State House is the convention center and many of the buildings are linked together by elevated enclosed walkways.  We understand that Indianapolis is really promoting itself as a convention destination.  Their downtown area was spotless, there are many restaurants in the vicinity ranging from expensive steak houses to popular chain restaurants to fast food places.  I think it would be an interesting place for a convention.  In addition to touring the State House there are multiple other museums in the vicinity, including an art museum, the Indiana History Museum and an interactive Children's Museum.  

Well, we didn't have enough time to even scratch the surface, but we enjoyed the time we spent downtown.  

But our real reason for being in Indiana was the wedding... and it was lovely.

And we had a good time at the reception!

Mystery Quilt Solved!

I am happy to report that my mystery "quilt-in-a-box" is finished!

For those of you who don't know what a mystery quilt is, I will try to explain.  First you are given a vague set of fabric requirements to accumulate and cut.  Then about once a month, for maybe 5 or 6 months, you are given a step to do with some of the pieces, sewing them together to create bigger pieces.  After several months of what seems like random piecing, the final way to put your pieces together is revealed.

Charlotte Hawkes (scrapitudequilts.com) presented this mystery through her blog (Scrap-in-a-box Mystery). My friend Alice and I followed Charlotte's instructions and each of us worked on our own quilt and frequently compared our progress.   Of course, Alice finished her quilt a couple months ago... she is very good at getting things done.  I'm a bit slower.

Charlotte's mystery quilts are "scrap quilts," where you basically use small leftover pieces from other projects for the majority of the quilt.  So I decided to use batiks, as I had a number of batik scraps, quite a few 5 inch charm squares of batiks I had received as a gift, and access to Alice's bag of batik scraps.  In addition to the many "scraps" we had to select a "neutral" (I used a beige batik) and a "blender" (I selected a yellow batik).  I tried to mix up my scraps as much as possible, but I tried to avoid blue.

When the first set of directions had us cutting very small squares into triangles, I might have quit right then and there.  But there is something motivating about having a friend nudging you on each step of the way.  And it's particularly rewarding when the mystery is solved and you end up with such a pretty quilt!

Charlotte suggested waiting until we knew how the blocks would go together before selecting our setting and border fabrics and I think that was good advice.  I'm happy with my orange and green which I think blend well with all of the other bursts of color throughout the quilt.

I've flipped over a corner so that you can see the backing fabric I chose.  It's also a batik with shades of green and orange.

And one last picture to give you an idea of size.  It's folded in half and draped over the couch... a very generous lap quilt... big enough to spread over the whole couch and certainly big enough to wrap up in!

Now to be honest, when I was sewing those little triangles together, I probably did a bit of whining.  And more than once I wondered if all of those tricky bias edges would create so much distortion that I wouldn't end up with a usable quilt top.  But somehow it all came together... not perfect... but pretty darn nice!

Now I'm ready for the next mystery, Charlotte!